Democracy Now! : LINKTV : July 29, 2021 8:00am-9:01am PDT : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive (2024)

♪ [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york this is democracy now! >> the cdc recommends fully vaccinated people wear masks in public and/or settings to help prevent the spread of the delta variant and protect others. amy: these cdc has issued recommendations that vaccinated people return to wearing masks

as president biden announces all civilian federal workers will be required to be vaccinated. we will speak with emergency room doctor lena wen about what is next and her new book and the fight for public health. then, the senate has voted to open debate on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that includes new spending on climate and environment measures. sen. schumer: as majority leader, i have made it clear that i will not pass an infrastructure package that does not reduce carbon pollution at a scale commensurate with the urgency of the climate crisis we face, plain and simple, and that is what democrats intend to do. amy: critics say the infrastructure bill falls far short of what is needed. we will speak with a climate researcher. >> these unprecedented extreme

weather events happening across the country are reminding u that congress needs to act on the climate crisis now and pass a bold plan for budget reconciliation this summer. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the senate has voted to open debate on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that contains $550 million in new spending. the bill is expected to include $110 billion for roads and bridges, $66 billion for passenger and freight ra projects, $65 billion for broadband internet, $55 billion for clean drinking water, and $39 billion for public transit. many republicans voted to

advance the bill after democrats agreed to remove a proposal to strengthen the ability of the internal revenue service to catch tax cheats. senate majority leader chuck schumer praised the deal. sen. schumer: mr. president, i want to commend the senators who worked with president biden to reach an agreement on a bipartisan infrastructure deal. the senate has come together and in a strong bipartisan fashion, voted to begin the legislative process here on the senate floor. amy: democrats are also hoping to pass a separate $3.5 trillion bill through the reconciliation process, but that effort may be doomed after democratic senator krysten sinema of arizoncame out against it on wednesday. congressmember alexandria ocasio-cortez criticized sinema on twitter writing quote, "good luck tanking your own party's investment on child care, climate action, and infrastructure." the world trade organization has failed again to agree on a

proposal to temporarily waive intellectual property rights for coronavirus vaccines. key opponents to the proposal include the european union, japan, and south korea. this comes as a new study by the people's vaccine alliance finds the cost of vaccinating the world would be five times cheaper if vaccine manufacturers weren't making billions in profit. the alliance estimated pfizer/biontech and moderna are charging governments as much as $41 billion above the estimated cost of production. meanwhile, president biden is announcing today all civilian federal workers will be required to get vaccinated or face regular testing. new york governor andrew cuomo has ordered all patients facing healthcare workers at state run hospitals to get vaccinated. all other new york state employees must get vaccinated or face regular tasting -- regular testing.

google and facebook have also announced new vaccine mandates for workers. we will have more on the pandemic after headlines with dr. lena wen. a major new study by the urban institute has found poverty in the united states has temporarily fallen by 45% thanks to government aid programs instituted during the pandemic. child poverty has dropped by a record 61%. but the gains may be short-lived as the federal government halts stimulus checks, increased food stamps, expanded employment, and other programs. a federal moratorium on evictions ends on saturday. housing activists fear millions of people who owe back rent may soon be at risk of losing their homes. meanwhile, a lobbyist group for landlords has sued the u.s. government to recover lost rent due to the eviction moratorium. house speaker nancy pelosi has broken from other top democrats

by claiming only congress, not president biden, has the power to cancel student debt. she has also raised objections to proposals for broad-based debt cancellation. rep. pelosi: suppose your child decided at this time they did not want to go to college, but you are paying taxes to forgive somebody else's obligations. you may not be happy about that. amy: meanwhile, a growing number of historically black colleges and universities have been using federal pandemic relief funds to help erase student debt. last week, south carolina state university helped more than 2,500 students by erasing nearly $10 million in student debt. in peru, the socialist teacher and union leader pedro castillo was sworn in as president wednesday as the country marked 200 years of independence. in a speech to the nation, castillo vowed to be a champion of the poor.

>> a person who belongs to sectors who have been oppressed for centuries, this is the first time a political party in the country's interior wins an election democratically and a rural teacher is elected constitutional president. it is difficult to express the honor this means to me right now. amy: pedro castillo also pledged to heal the wounds of colonialism and announced he would not live in the government palace in lima. in news from the occupied west bank, israeli forces have shot dead a 12-year-old palestinian boy named mohammed al-alami while he sat in the back seat of his father's car at an israeli checkpoint north of hebron. mohammed is the 11th palestinian child shot and killed by israeli forces in the occupied west bank this year. that is according to the defense

for children international which publicized his killing on wednesday. earlier today, israeli forces raided the main office, seizing files about palestinian children in israeli military courts. meanwhile, on tuesday an israeli soldier shot dead a palestinian plumber on his way home from work in the west bank town of beita on tuesday. shadi omar lotfi salim is at least the seventh palestinian killed recently near beita, which has been the scene of numerous protests against a new israeli settlement. israel has launched what has been described as a maximum pressure campaign against ben & jerry's and its parent company unilever, after the iconic ice cream brand announced it would halt sales in israeli settlements in the occupied west bank. israel has asked 35 u.s. governors to enforce state laws which make it a crime to support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, or bds. last week, the head of the new york state common retirement

fund wrote to unilever saying it was examining whether ben & jerry's had violated state policies on is really boycott. meanwhile, the democratic nominee criticized the state's decision saying, "actions that erase the distinction between israel and a settlement or occupied territory are endorsing annexation and today's one state status quo." a number of jewish groups including j street, the new israel fund and americans for peace now, all of whom oppose bds, have defended ben & jerry's decision and rejected accusations that the company's decision was anti-semitic. meanwhile the founders of ben & jerry's, who no longer have operational control of the company, have defended the company's decision. writing in the new york times, ben cohen and jerry greenfield describe themselves as proud jews and supporters of the state of israel.

they write quote, "we believe this act can and should be seen as advancing the concepts of justice and human rights, core tenets of judaism." french president emmanuel macron has acknowledged france owes a "debt" to french polynesia, where the french carried out nearly 200 nuclear tests between 1966 and 1996, but macron stopped short of apologizing during a visit to the south pacific territory. a recent investigation by the french investigative website disclose estimated 100,000 french polynesian residents may have been exposed to radiation from the tests. high-ranking diplomats from the united states and russia, the world's two largest nuclear superpowers, met in geneva wednesday to discuss arms control and other issues. this comes a month after

president biden and russian president vladimir putin agreed to begin a bilateral dialogue on nuclear arms. the two countries possess about 90% of the world's nuclear weapons. two whistleblowers have warned congress about the dire conditions at the fort bliss military base in el paso, texas, where the government has set up large tents to hold thousands of unaccompanied migrant children. the whistleblowers say children are held in filthy conditions without adequate mental and health care. in a statement, one of the whistleblowers, arthur pearlstein, said quote, "gross mismanagement, waste, and abuse of authority by those at the top who insisted on utmost secrecy led to conditions for thousands of children at fort bliss that can only be described as constituting mistreatment." pearlstein is a director at the federal mediation and conciliation service. in other news from texas, two

people died and 30 were hospitalized after a chemical leak at a plant outside houston on tuesday. the company, lyondellbasell, says 100,000 pounds of acetic acid accidentally leaked from its plant in la porte. the leak occurred less than a week after authorities in la porte had to issue a shelter-in-place order following a chemical leak at a nearby dow chemical plant. voting rights activists have begun a selma-to-montgomery style march in texas to protest republican efforts to pass sweeping voter suppression legislation. marchers are calling for an end to the filibuster, passage of the for the people act, and the full restoration of the 1965 voting rights act. the reverend william barber of the poor people's campaign is helping to lead the 27-mile march. >> what we see happening here is happening all over the country.

texas is like the canary in the mine. just like alabama was the canary in the mine in 1965. texas is the canary in the mine in 2021 and we must nationalize texas to change the whole country. amy: a virginia police officer who participated in the january 6 insurrection is back in jail after investigators learned the man, thomas robertson, had placed an order for 37 guns after his arrest. investigators had also found an m4 military-style rifle and a "partially assembled pipe bomb" at his home. in addition, prosecutors accused robertson of calling for more violence after january 6. "the washington post" reports the former doctor of the usa gymnastics team, larry nassar, has spent more than $10,000 on himself in prison while paying just $100 a year to his victims.

in 2018, nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for sexually assaulting and abusing more than 160 young female athletes, including olympic gold medal winner simone biles. attorney john manly, who represents many of the gymnasts abused by nassar, criticized the bureau of prisons saying quote, "they're allowing the worst child predator in american history to spend thousands of dollars on himself and pay $8 a month to his victims. something is completely broken and needs to be fixed." and the longtime journalist glen ford has died at the age of 71. he was co-founder of black agenda report and a vocal critic of president obama. >> we have for some time been saying that obama is not the lesser of evils, but the more

effective people. he has created a model for austerity, a model with his deficit reduction commission. he has introduced preventive detention, a law for preventive detention. he has expanded the theaters of war and drone wars and has made an unremitting assault on international war. amy: the late glenn forward speaking on democracynow in 2012. watch the full debate at democracynow.org. those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. coming up, speak with baltimore's health commissioner about her new book and the fight for public health. stay with us. [♪♪] [music break]

amy: "all the same."

this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: welcome to our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. amy: experts are warning vaccine inequality could lead to a prolonged covid-19 pandemic, even as the world trade organization has failed again to agree on a proposal to temporarily waive intellectual property rights for coronavirus vaccines. this comes as a new study by the people's vaccine alliance finds the cost of vaccinating the world would be five times cheaper if vaccine manufacturers were not making billions in profit. meanwhile in tokyo, where the olympics are underway, japanese officials have reported record-breaking coronavirus cases that set an all-time high since the pandemic began.

in indonesia, new epicenter of the pandemic in asia, officials have extended covid-19 restrictions to august 2nd and stepped up vaccination drives. here in the united states, president biden is formally announcing today that civilian federal employees must be vaccinated or face regular testing and follow social distancing guidelines. google and facebook have also announced vaccine mandates for workers, and more than 600 universities have announced mandates for students or employees. new york governor andrew cuomo announced wednesday all state hospital employees must be vaccinated, with no testing options for the unvaccinated. >> the courtas upheld and the department of justice just did a memo that says an employer can mandate an employee get vaccinated. we are taking the first major step down this road.

we are staying in state spitals where the state is the employer, the frontline workers must be vaccinated, period. not vaccinated for you have to have a test once a week. we are taking that pition other state governments. the federal government is supposed to take that position for normal public employees. but for the public employees, the hospital workers who are front facing, we are mandating vaccinations. amy: on tuesday, the cdc issued new mask guidelines that recommend even vaccinated people returno wearing sks. but state and local officis are not legally required to implement cdc guidelines. in texas, republican governor greg abbott signed an executive order to bar local officials from requiring masks. missouri's republican attorney

neral suedo halt aounty sk manda now in fect in stlouis. thisomes as ssissipptop heth officls say ty are seeingn "asunding" ri in covid ses as t delta variant spreadand threens to erwhelm hospals. as olast wee the cdcaid 35% of u.s. unties we pericing higlevels o communittransmison. for mo, we areoined byr. ana wen,mergencyoom ysician d formeraltimore healthommissior. also, contributing columnist for the washington post and author of a new memoir just out, "lifelines: a doctor's journey in the fight for public health." dr. wen, welcome back to democracy now! let me start with this question. as president biden is announcing that civilian federal health workers will be required to be vaccinated. the cdc is saying you have to wear masks once again, something

you were opposed to when they changed a few weeks ago. in fact, the vaccine has not gotten full authorization. it is still in emergency use authorization. people who are concerned, they are saying that the federal government has not fully approved these, why should i risk my health, can you talk about what is going on and what is your answer to them. dr. wen: i was opposed to the cdc back in may. i thought that the honor de was never going to work. when vaccinated and unvaccinated people are mixing, everybody should still be wearing masks. i support what the cdc is doing, whicis going back to this and are mask requirement because we know that we cannot trust the unvaccinated. they have been walking around without masks and that is what has led to the surgery and we have been seeing. to answer your question about what is happening now with vaccine approval, i think it is

good that the fda is making sure that we follow the right process. we don't want for anything to be rushed. whatever redtape and bureaucracy there is, we should be cutting out because full approval, at this point, hundreds of millions of people around the world have received these life-saving vaccines. it has been proven how safe and effective they are. i am not entirely sure what we are waiting for. i do know that having full approval will really pave the way for a lot more employers and schools and other institutions to implement vaccine mandates, which i strongly believe is what weeed at this point. i very much support what the bideadministration is doing with the federal government and federal employees saying that we are in the middle of a national and international public health emergency. you have a right to stay unvaccinated if you want to, but if you want to be in public spac, if you want to be coming

to work and be around other individuals, you don't have a right to infect otherwith a potentially deadly disease. the idea of either testi or proving that you are vaccinated is exactly the right one and fda approval in the near future i hope will be coming as well. nermeen: one of the things that many people have been surprised by all over the worl is despite the fact that these vaccines have been available for americans for several months w, only 50% of americans are fully vaccinated. it is a huge issue because, as you point out, now especially with the spread of the delta variant, there have also been numeus incentives offered to americans to take the vaccine even as around the world, people are desperate for the same vaccine. what do you think can be done apart from the fda granting full approval? what can be done to get people

to take these vaccines, if they have not taken them until now? is there any reason to think they will take them in the future? dr. wen: it is a really good point that you are making about american exceptionalism, which is that there are people around the world who are even healthcare workers or vulnerable older individuals who are so desperate to get the vaccine and some people are going to die because they do not have access to the vaccine. and here we are in the u.s. sitting on this surplus, really having doses that are going to go to waste. we are begging people to take the vaccine where there are people who are begging to get access to the vaccine. we should be thinking about who we are as a country, what are the values we have, and what is our obligation to people around the road as well. to your point about what is it that can be done, the biden administration has done a great job in getting vaccine supplies and initially working on the vaccine rollout. they have hit a wall. there is not much else that they

can do short of vaccine mandates and that is because you cannot keep on doing more of the same at some point. you have to admit that you have to change tactics. you cannot keep on doing education and outreach. yes, that is important, but that is not going to get us over this hump. we have less than 70% of all adult americans having one dose. we are at just about one third of teens who are now eligible to get the vaccine who have gotten vaccinated. we really need to do something different. in the past, we know vaccine mandates are effective and we need to be reframing how we think about them. we should be thinking about this as we do drunk driving. you have a right, if you want to be intoxicated in your home or in some other setting, at a bar. but you do not have the right to be intoxicated and then get behind the wheel of a car in a way that you could potentially endanger other people. i think that the vaccine mandate concept is going to be increasingly important because, for example, i have two

unvaccinated young kids. i don't know that someone has the freedom to transmit covid-19 to my unvaccinated kids, or somebody who is compromised or on chemotherapy. nermeen: i wanted to ask whether you think this has had any impact on people's hesitancy or outright refusal to take the vaccine, thainitiall there were widespread reports that so-called healthcare workers were refusing to vaccine. now, the american medical association has sa that 96% of physicians are fully vaccinated. but healthcare workers include a very large number of people. i think initially, many may have thought that doctors themselves are refusing this vaccine, so how do we know it is safe? it seems it is not safe if doctors are not taking it. but physicians have taken it, almost 100% of them.

what effect do you think that has had and what you think that needs to be clarified further? dr. wen: that is a really interesting point. i think you are right. at the very beginning, we were hearing reports of healthcare workers at large, not physicians. perhaps there were some positions at the beginning was that i do not want to be in the first week of getting the vaccine, but you would be hard-pressed to find any physician in the u.s. who was not fully vaccinated and is not enthusiastic about recommending it to our patients and family members. it is true that, especially early on, nurses, home healthcare workers, the broader swath of people who constitute healthcare workers and healthcare professions, there were people who were hesitant. increasingly, this group is getting vaccinated and we have seen at last count more than 800 hospitals and healthcare systems implementing some kind of vaccine mandate. this is not new to us as healthcare workers. we are routinely required every

year to get the flu vaccine. we are required to have our mmr vaccines and hepatitis vaccines because it would be irresponsible for us to pass on diseases to our patients, some of who are among the most vulnerable. we have an obligation to care for our patients. this is another one where i really believe that mandates are important. we have seen all of these medical association get behind that idea of vaccine mandates for healthcare workers. as more healthcare workers are vaccinated, it is important that we recognize that we are in a position in our communities and begin to tell our relatives and friends and the community at large about the importance of vaccination. amy: this week, president biden responded to reporters about the millions of americans who are still unvaccinated. pres. biden: we have an epidemic of the unvaccinated causing enormous confusion. the more we know -- the more we

learn about this virus, the more we have to be worried and concerned. only one thing we know for sure, if those other 100 million people got vaccinated, we would be in a very different world. get vaccinated. if you have not, you are not nearly as smart as you think you are. amy: so, that is president biden. the virus now, quicker, sicker, younger. talk to me about who is packing the hospitals. who is getting intubated. people especially in their 20's and long covid, what we understand about it. even if you are not as sick, possibly being sicker for so much longer. dr. wen: these are really good point. two things about where we are and who is getting sicker, based on the science and based on what we are seeing, the first is that the good news is that older individuals, those who have chronic medical illnesses tend

to be the people who are vaccinated and that is why we are seeing a shift to younger groups. but it is young people, people in their 30's and 40's, who are becoming so ill that they are dying and leaving behind young children and families as orphans. we are talking about people in their 20's who may think that they are invisible -- invincible. they are really not. they are also getting ill and even if they recover and leave the hospital, what ends up happening is that they have these long-haul covid symptoms. i have seen patients who, even months after they get relatively mild symptoms, they are still so short of breath that they have trouble walking a couple of blocks. they are so tired, they have difficulty concentrating and work and some people have even had to take disability leave because of the symptoms they are having. some people are also left with lots of hair, loss of smell and taste and cannot enjoy food, and they do not know when they return to normal is going to be. long covid is a real problem.

something else you mentioned about the younger, quicker, sicker is a really good point. with the delta variant, we know a person infected with the delta variant carries 1000 times the viral load. what that means is that that person can transmit a lot more virus. they also get ill a lot faster and potentially they could affect a lot more people as well. people who are unvaccinated should rlly not that they are at high risk and also that this is not just -- i agree with everything, the clip you played from president biden, but this is not just a pandemic of the unvaccinated. those who are vaccinated, we now know based on the cdc, they are now able, with the delta variant because they carry so much more virus, they uld transmit it to their unvaccinated family members. even though i am fully vaccinated, my children are not because they are too young. i need to be careful for my children because all of the

unvaccinated people around us. amy: many countries have been unable to secure enough vaccines for their nations and children in the united states and around the road have had education disrupted for more than a year and a half. this is james elder of the united nations children's fund speaking at a press briefing in geneva yesterday. >> more than 600 million children remain affected by school closures. 600 million. schools need to open as soon as possible. reopening schools cannot wait forll teachers and students to be vaccinated. governorat a time of stress need to protect those education dgets. we need toind news ways -- new ways to get them back in amid coping. -- amid covid. amy: if you could talk about this issue of vaccine accessibility around the world and at the same time, pfizer in the united states saying people

should get a third booster. they say they have evidence that it increases your ability to deal with the variant by something like five times and if you are older, far more than that. and you have companies like pfizer making record profits. yesterday, tanzania got their first vaccine and they are lucky. some countries have not gotten any. dr. wen: think that this is a really tricky issue. global vaccine equitis a priority. if we do not share the vaccine with the world, the virus is going to share the world. we are going to get new variants that develop. it ia humanitarian issue, but it is also a self-interest issue for us to share the vaccine and to figure out a better way of manufacturing the vaccine, production around the world. this question of the booster shots, this is why we have federal regulatory agencies. this is the way they work. the company produces data. they submit the data to the fda

and cdc. they decide that booster shots are needed. probably, we will find that the booster shot is necessary for someone. probably for those who are severely immunocompromised. that is the way the process is supposed to work. i will go back to something you mentioned about children. i just came out with my new book and i ta a lot in the book about how we as a country have really failed our children. we have consistently failed our children by not investing in early childhood education, providing childcare, and. during the pandemic, we prioritized opening bars and not schools. we' faileto invest in ventilation.

outlawed or banned school districts requiring masks in the fall. i worry we are not prioritizing our children, their learning, and their health once again. all of those individuals who are nogetting vaccinated right now by choice, they are also impeding the ability of our kids to safely be back in schools. they are also directly exposing our children who do not have the choice to be vaccinated to covid-19 a potential long-term coequences. i hope that we take a hard look at who we are and what our values are when it comes to our children. we are just -- nermeen: we are just going to get into your book. you have mentioned your children. many people are concerned. when is the vaccine likely to be available to them? in your book, you speak about how the lack of access to public health impacts children, potentially for the rest of their life. the access to public health, poverty, and other issues have a huge impact, not just in the moment on children, but potentially for their whole lives. dr. wen: with regard to fda

authorization, i would hope that for the six to 11-year-old group that will have vaccine sometime this fall. for the younger group, maybey winter. my hope is by this winter. and for the younger group, six months to two years, probably the beginning of 2022. i talked about my own story. the main portion of the book is my experience leading baltimore's health department and the programs that we led that opened visitation programs and partnersps, we we able to reduce benefit mortality by 38% and close the gap between black and white benefit mortality by over 50%. i saw growing up as an immigrant about how people don't have access to care and how we do not treat healthcare as a fundamental human right as i

really is. was 10 yrs old when a neighbor child, a neighbor i knew well, he had a severe asthma attack and his grandmother was too afraid to call for help because the family was undocumented and she was afraid that their family would be deported. as a revt -- as a result, this boy died in front of me from asthma attack. this is something that is happening right now because we as a country do not have a system where we value lives the same way and where we are not prioritizing our children. throughout my career working in public health, i have seen what the needare when it comes to understanding that housing is also a health issue. that the food that we and air that we breathe are also health issues. we as a society need to look post-covid, even though we are still very much in this pandemic, we need to see how come he really learned the lesson so we are not feelinour

most vulnerable again. nermeen: talk specifically about your own childhood. you came to the u.s. when you were seven, and how that informed your decision to go into public health and to focus on emergency medicine. dr. wen: my parents and i immigrated from china. we were fortunate to be granted political asylum in the u.s.. my parents worked multiple jobs, but we still h trouble making ends meet. i father worked in a restaurant, delivering newspapers. my mother was working in a hotel, cleaning while also getting her degree so that she could become a teacher, which she did. she ended up teaching second grade for many years in los angeles. we went through many periods where he depended on food stamps. we dependeon public housing. at certain points, we were experiencing homelessness ourselves. that very much shaped who i am and why i wanted to enter

the er. the experience of watching a child die in front of me when i was a child myself, i knew i did not want to be in a position where i had to turn someone away because of inability to pay or because of their immigration status or because of health insurance or lack thereof. at is why entered the er, but it was also in the er that i saw how much what patients need is not just what we can do within the walls of the hospital. i had another patient who was a child with asthma, but he did not need new inhalers. he was living in an area where he was across the three from an incinerator and there were houses around where he lived that were full of mold and that is what was triggering his asthma. that is why i turned to public health and i had my dream job as baltimore's health commissioner to lead the city to see what we can do about these social determinants of health. these other circ*mstances that actually determine their well-being and why public health can actually be a critical tool

for social justice. amy: you also talk in your book about the fierce anti-chinese backlash in this country. do you find as you push for mask mandates, something you have been saying consistently, whatever the federal government says, that when you push for vaccines, you get enormous pushback as a chinese-american woman. are you receiving death threats now? dr. wen: every time i appear on air and people see how i look, there is something about being an asian american person, a woman talking about vaccines and masks, issues that have been so charged ideologically, that somehow sets people in a direction that is harmful. it is not really just about me. there are so many aapi's in the

u.s. and asians around the world who have been assaulted, spat upon, and blame for the coronavirus. there have been shop owners whose shops have been destroyed and burned to the ground because people blame them for the virus. there is a real consequence to the words that people use. when our former president and other allies used words like the kung flu or the china virus, there was this insinuation that somehow people of asian descent are to be blamed for this global pandemic that has killed so many people. understandably, some people take out their anger, understandable anger and frustration, but they take it out on people who look like me. this is a major problem that we need everyone to help us to stop aap i hate, to start using the correct language because language really matters and we also need to take a stand when we are talking about the lab leak theory, which is something we need to investigate. but we need to be investigating

this in a scientific way, not putting this into the political sphere, beuse when we make these issues partisan, there is a direct consequence on anti-asian hate, assault, and violence. amy: we want to thank you so much for being with us, dr. leana wen, emergency physician, previously served as baltimore's health commissioner, and author of a new book. this is democracy now! the senate has voted to open debate on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that includes some new spending on climate and environment measures, but critics say it falls short of what is needed in this time of climate catastrophe. stay with us. [♪♪] [music break]

amy: "nibari" by umalali and the garifuna collective. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. text democracynow to 66866. descendant open debate on a $1.2 trillion spending package. critics say it falls short of what is needed. senate majority leader chuck schumer tried to reassure progressives during news conference outside the capitol. sen. schumer: as majority leader, i will not pass an infrastructure package that does not reduce carbon pollution on a scale commensurate with the urgency of the climate crisis we face, plain and simple, and that is what democrats intend to do. amy: schumer was standing inside

of a sign that said "climate action now" with nancy pelosi and a number of others. democrats say they hope to include additional climate measures in a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package that could advance without being blocked by a republican filibuster if it is backed by all 50 democrats. but now, democratic senat kyrsten sinema, the le democratic negotiator for the infrastructure deal, said wednesday she will reject the $3.5 trillion proposal. republican senate minority leader mit mcconnell called her quote, "very courageous," while democratic congresswoman rashida tlaib wrote on twitter, "sinema seems not to care that her own state is flooding, the west is burning, and infrastructure around the country is crumbling. sinema is more interested in gaining gop friends and blocking much needed resources, than fighting for her residents' future."

for more, we are joined by leah stokes, associate professor of political science at the university of california, santa barbara, and a researcher on climate and energy policy. her piece out in the atlantic magazine is headlined, "the infrastructure bill won't cut it on climate." welcome back to democracy now! professor, when we last spoke to you in june, descendant was still trying to reach a bipartisan agreement on a new infrastructure plan. now it looks like they've announced a deal. but in your new piece, you write it is insufficient to address the climate crisis and say, "we cannot address a small sliver of our carbon pollution and call it a victory." can you start off by what people are confronting a this country, the fires, droughts, the flooding, as well as its connection to around the world from siberia and beyond? leah: absolutely. the last month has been brutal when it comes to extreme weather events around the united states

and really across the whole planet. we saw at the end of june, record heat, temperatures in places like portland and seattle smashing records. buckling roads killing more than 800 people. likely, that number will go up the more we learn. and also killing one billion organisms in the ocean that cannot handle these types of high heat temperatures in a region that has never experienced it before. in addition, around 60 million americans are currently facing drought in the west. that stretches from montana all the way down to new mexico. that drought, which is unprecedented in something like 400 years according to scientists, that drought is fueling a pretty bad wildfire season that has already created huge fires like the dixie fire in northern california in july. normally, we see these kinds of fires much later in the season. and then, we have seen

devastating extreme participant -- precipitation events, which has led to flooding in places like the new york subway system. highways in detroit and parts of texas. that flooding is not just happening in the united states. it seems like every time you look around, under the part of the world has flooded, whether it is japan where there were mudslides, or china where the entire subway system in certain parts of the country was inundated with water. india, going to, -- ghana, terrifying images from germany and london. you can take a trip around the road and find insane flooding events happening. and that is climate change because as it turns out as we heat up the planet, certain parts of the planet where it is warmer, that warmer air holds more water. scientists have been telling us for a long time that these extreme downpours leading to rapid flooding is something that

is going to happen under the climate crisis. it has been a very tough month for people all around the planet. nermeen: professortokes, ta about what you think needs to be do. what is it that you argued that the u.s nee to go upo 80% clean electricity in the next decade? what are the other climate investments that need to be made, and what would you like to see elsewhere in the world? prof. stokes: president biden put forth a pretty good plan to address the climate crisis. it is called the american jobs plan. it was a plan to spend something between $2 trillion and $3 trillion on the climate crisis. that is what i want to see enacted into law through the budget reconciliation project -- process that majority leader schumer was talking about. at is th pross whereean goorward wh 50 vot in the senate what woulde in thaig

clime bill tte hope t pass laterhis summ alongsi the birtisan bl? first,e woulneed to cln up our electricity system. we wanto get to 80clean wer b2030 that is dole the amot of ean powewe havoday a it would maively cu carn pollution as wl as sulfur dioxid, rticar matter, convenonal matter, things that make people sick. we can do that through two policies. first, extending these tax credits for renewables as well as other clean technologies. and seco, through a clean electricity standard. a policy that says to utilities, you have to get cleaning up your system. you have to be hitting that 80% clean target by 2030. the good news is that the white house and schumer and people like pelosi have been very clear thathese are top line items that they will be working to get those in the package. we have to do the same thing for

transportation and for buildings, for other parts of our economy that create a lot of buses and school buses as well as public transit, electric vehicles, charging infrastructure. we can clean up our buildings through things like programs that help ople buy an induction stove for heat pump. all of these policies will actually drive down admissions, -- emissions, while also investing in the american people and job creation. that is what we need to see from congress this summer. nermeen: in at sensecould you talk about what the budget reconciliation package, the 3.5 trillion dollar -- the $3.5 trillion that bernie sanders has been working on, what the status of that is and what you think that might achieve? prof. stokes: absolutely.

that package, which would be a very bold investment in the american economy, that package is a combination of two plans at the biden administration put forward. the american family plan, which focuses on n healthcare and childcare, really important investments, alongside the american jobs plan, which i mentioned was a very bold climate package that president biden put forward earlier this year. it is a combination of investing in people, their health, investing in the planet, investing in job creation. it is a really good idea. what exactly is in that package? we don't know yet. that has been negotiated for the past several weeks. majority leader schumer has suggested that perhaps next week , we will start to have votes on that bill moving forward and that is where we would find the clean electricity standard, tax credits for renewables that i talked about, things like a civilian climate core that the

sunrise movement has been pushing for, investments in clean buildings, investments in clean transit, funding for worker transition, funding for rural co-ops, electric co-ops that have challenges and need to retire their fossil fuel debt, and so on and so forth including investments in environmental justice and cleaning up our polluted air. that is the whole package. there is a lot of things we have to do if we want to get on top of clean air and the climate crisis. amy: this is senator sanders talking about investing in a civilian climate core. sen. sanders: is going to cost many billions of dollars in a civilian climate core. you do not think we will give them decent salaries and educational benefits, whether it is the view -- the ability to go to college, in order to get them rolling up their sleeves, whether it is in california with

forced issues, whether it is weatherization in homes, whether it is working for the park service, whatever it may be. young people will have the opportunity to lead our country and the world in saving this planet. i am very excited about that. amy: that is senator sanders speaking. i wanted to ask you, you have the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill that looks like senator seminar -- senator sinema of arizona is going to veto. you need all 50 democrats and she is saying she won't support it. pelosi says she will not consider the bipartisan deal unless they also vote on the $3.5 trillion. let's go to the bipartisan deal that was voted on last night to at least open debate. in response to the senate vote to the infrastructure bill, janet redman said in a

statement, "this looks like the exxon infrastructure bill corporate lobbyists were persuading their contacts in congress to pass. oil companies seem to have succeeded in undermining any meaningful climate action in this bill in order to protect their profits at the cost of our health and safety." greenpeace shreds this so-called bipartisan bill. can you talk about your thoughts? prof. stokes: i am a little bit more positive about the bipartisan bill because i think there are critical investments we have to make in our infrastructure. engineers have been telling us for years that we have to invest in roads and bridges. that might not be the top of my wish list because i care about the climate crisis, but i can understand why that is an important thing to invest in. there are a couple of things

that are climate oriented in the bipartisan bill. my point is that this is not a climate bill and i will explain why. for example, we have investments in public transit, clean water, scaling up transmission infrastructure, which is critical to bringing clean energy to the center of the country to the coast. the transmission investment is something we can be proud of because it is probably $28 billion, and that is necessary. let's talk about what it does on transit and electrification. president biden proposed to spend about $50 billion to create 500,000 charging stations for electric vehicles. the bipartisan bill proposes to spend $7.5 billion. that is about 50% of his goal -- 15% of his goal. then we take school buses, a critical issue for children's health. when kids are riding on school buses that are using oil to propel them around, they are creating a lot of bad air

pollution and kids are breathing that in. it is not good for asthma, it is not good for respiratory health. biden has proposed to spend $20 billion, which would have converted 20% of our school buses to electric. the bipartisan infrastructure deal came in at 10% of his plan. just $2.5 billio that is rrible bause it means weill only electrify around 8000 school buses, or 3% of the fleet. justas month, ile this bipartisanill is bng negotiated, we are expting fo times auch spenng on electrifying school ses. at is terrib decisio in addition, the bartisan bill hasbout $39illion. bidenroposed 5 billion. that is about half. the same for lead pipes. biden proposed $100 billion and we got about $55 billion, about half. there are some good investment

in important things, but there are many cases spent on the dollar. that is what we have to hold the line and say that the budget reconciliation process has to be a bold climate bill. if your listeners are interested in going the senate and saying, we need climate action now, there is a great website called call4climate.com and you can get to your senators and say, this is not enough. we need a bold climate bill this summer. amy: leah stokes, thank you for being with us. associate professor of political science at the university of california, santa barbara. we will place a link to your piece "the infrastructure bill , won't cut it on climate." and that is it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who

appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. democracy now! is produced with renee feltz, mike burke, deena guzder, messiah rhodes, nermeen shaikh, maria taracena, tami woronoff, charina nadura, sam alcoff, tey marie astudillo, john hamilton, robby karran, hany massoud and adriano contreras. our general manager is julie crosby. spece

announcer: on this episode of "earth focus," ocean acidification caused by global warming is dramatically affecting marine life. in california, partnerships are forming between commercial fisheries, scientists, and community members to help the endangered abalone adapt and survive. [slide projector clicking] different announcer: "earth focus" is made possible in part by a grant from anne ray

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